Dan Hooker is back doing Dan Hooker things as he has ventured across the planet to fight England's Arnold Allen in London this weekend. Not only is Hooker fighting a bloke who is undefeated in the UFC (8-0) on his home turf not long after returning to the glorious land of Aotearoa from his previous overseas excursion, this fight marks Hooker's return down to the featherweight division. Many would view this combination of wrinkles as skewing the fight in favour of Allen and yet we know Hooker's mana.

Since the start of the pandemic, Hooker has fought four times. One win and three losses with the losses coming against a trio of the lightweight division's best fighters in Dustin Poirier, Michael Chandler and Islam Makhachev. During this period Hooker had numerous training complications and all four of these fights were overseas, providing further travel complications via pandemic antics. While others complained about Aotearoa, Hooker rolled through his mahi to emerge as a hearty UFC trooper.

The start of the pandemic also serves as a checkpoint in Hooker's lightweight journey. Starting in the UFC as a featherweight, Hooker went 3-3 as he alternated between wins and losses. Enter 2017 and Hooker moved up to lightweight where he sealed four consecutive wins before a rugged loss to Edson Barboza, followed by three consecutive wins. Hooker went 7-1 in moving up a weight division and then raised his mana further in losing during the pandemic.

Back in that featherweight phase (2014-16) Hooker wasn't as deeply entrenched in Team City Kickboxing as he is now. Hooker was also cutting weight without the help of elevated knowledge around nutrition, training and recovery. Hooker and Team CKB work closely with The Fight Dietician, plus their content is peppered with breath-work and holistic training methods.

All UFC fighters have access to the UFC's facilities in Las Vegas where everything from testing to kai is provided. The leap forward in how to best prepare athletes for their mahi should ensure that Hooker is comfortable dropping weight while training for the fight, cutting grams to make the weight in fight-week and then adding weight in a healthy manner between weigh-in and the start of the scrap.

The move back to featherweight should refresh Hooker and this fight against Allen serves as a key juncture for both fighters as they chase higher honours. Hooker is taller than Allen with a longer reach, although that's the only notable advantage for Hooker as Allen is equally as well-rounded as the kiwi.

Significant Strikes Landed per Min

Hooker: 4.90.

Allen: 2.96.

Striking Accuracy

Hooker: 47%.

Allen: 40%.

Significant Strikes Absorbed per Min

Hooker: 4.61.

Allen: 2.15.

Takedowns per 15min

Hooker: 0.90.

Allen: 1.44.

Takedown Defence

Hooker: 78%.

Allen: 76%.

Hooker will likely opt to control the fight from distance, unleashing a variety of strikes and fakes to boggle Allen's game. That's the general Team CKB recipe and Hooker's length provides a boost to that style. Both fighters have shown different layers of grappling through their careers as well, which could be a factor here but could also lead to both fighters embracing the striking battle.

Next weekend Kai Kara-France fights Askar Askarov in Ohio. Kara-France was CKB's best fighter last year and we now have two funky Aotearoa UFC fights to digest in just over a week. Mauri ora.